Posted on 01/10/2025 7:22:01 AM PST by Red Badger
DGIST researchers developed a nitrogen-doped carbon material to boost the performance of lithium–sulfur batteries, achieving faster charging, improved capacity, and long-term stability, paving the way for their commercialization.
Professor Jong-sung Yu’s team developed a nitrogen-doped porous carbon material that boosts lithium–sulfur battery performance, achieving rapid charging (12 minutes) and long-term stability (82% capacity retention after 1,000 cycles). This breakthrough could accelerate battery commercialization.
A research team led by Professor Jong-sung Yu from the DGIST Department of Energy Science and Engineering, under President Kunwoo Lee, has developed a groundbreaking technology to dramatically improve the charging speed of lithium-sulfur batteries. The team introduced an innovative nitrogen-doped porous carbon material to overcome the slow charging limitations that have stalled the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries, while essential for eco-friendly technologies like electric vehicles, face challenges due to their limited energy storage capacity and high production costs. In contrast, lithium-sulfur batteries have emerged as a promising alternative, offering higher energy density and benefiting from the affordability of sulfur as a key material. However, their commercial viability has been hampered by inefficient sulfur utilization during rapid charging, leading to reduced battery capacity.
Challenges in Lithium–Sulfur Battery Development
Another issue is the lithium polysulfides produced during the discharge process. These compounds migrate within the battery, degrading its performance. To address this, researchers have been developing batteries by incorporating sulfur into porous carbon structures. However, they have yet to achieve performance levels suitable for commercialization.
To solve these challenges, Professor Yu’s team synthesized a novel highly graphitic, multiporous carbon material doped with nitrogen and applied it to the cathode of a lithium–sulfur battery. This technology successfully maintained high energy capacity even under rapid charging conditions.
Synthesis of the Advanced Carbon Material
The newly developed carbon material was synthesized by employing a thermal reduction method that involves magnesium and ZIF-8.
ZIF-8 is a metal-organic framework (MOF) formed by the coordination of metal ions and organic ligands. It is characterized by its high thermal and chemical stability, as well as its distinctive porous structure.
At high temperatures, magnesium reacts with the nitrogen in ZIF-8, making the carbon structure more stable and robust while creating a diverse pore structure. This structure not only allows for higher sulfur loading but also improves the contact between sulfur and the electrolyte, significantly enhancing battery performance.
The lithium–sulfur battery developed in this study utilized the multifunctional carbon material synthesized, through the simple magnesium-assisted thermal reduction method, as a sulfur host. Even under rapid charging conditions with a full charge time of just 12 minutes, the battery achieved a high capacity of 705 mAh g⁻¹, which is a 1.6-fold improvement over conventional batteries. Furthermore, nitrogen doping on the carbon surface effectively suppressed lithium polysulfide migration, allowing the battery to retain 82% capacity even after 1,000 charge–discharge cycles, demonstrating excellent stability.
During the research, the collaborative team, led by Dr. Khalil Amine of Argonne National Laboratory, performed advanced microscopic analyses. These analyses confirmed that lithium sulfide (Li₂S) was formed in a specific orientation within the layered structures of the newly developed carbon material. This finding validated that nitrogen doping and the porous carbon structure enhanced sulfur loading, while the graphitic nature of the carbon accelerated sulfur reactions, thereby improving charging speed.
Professor Jong-sung Yu remarked, “This research focused on improving the charging speed of lithium–sulfur batteries using a simple synthesis method involving magnesium. We hope this study will accelerate the commercialization of lithium–sulfur batteries.”
Reference:
“Tailoring-Orientated Deposition of Li2S for Extreme Fast-Charging Lithium–Sulfur Batteries”
by Jeong-Hoon Yu, Byong-June Lee, Shiyuan Zhou, Jong Hun Sung, Chen Zhao, Cheol-Hwan Shin, Bo Yu, Gui-Liang Xu, Khalil Amine and Jong-Sung Yu, 7 November 2024, ACS Nano.
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c09892
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Mid-Career Researcher Support Program.
Still no.
Will they catch fire faster?
Pumping that much current into a car is scary.
Those would be “bus” bars.
(Christ taught, “lead us not into temptation,” but He wasn’t talking about puns, was He?”
Powered by kimchee!
I was under the impression that the faster a battery is recharged the more its life is degraded.
The tech already exists. What matters is that the govt tries to force people into EV's and also tries to "help" set up charging stations. No entrepreneur is going to spent the cost to set up charging near his restaurant or store if he's worried that the Dims will make good on their promises and set up free charging everywhere. The end result is few people want an EV that's being forced onto them, and the free market is hamstrung from setting up charging stations in many areas. (Though I can attest that the eastern seaboard has plenty of fast chargers. We travel that a lot. So an EV is good for many of our long trips.)
Granted, an EV is not good for many situations. I wouldn't have gotten an EV as our new, traveling car if we took many road trips in areas that have poor charging options, or if we drove up north during the winter (or drove in the south on days like today LOL). There are times our gas pickup is the best option.
Also an EV is not worth it unless you can set up charging at home and drive at least 12K miles per year on home charged miles (for us it's 16K miles annually, not counting about 10K miles charged away from home). The gas savings in an EV is real, but only if you're one of the few who does lots of driving while staying close to home (home charged miles). And don't get an EV as an only car.
I LOVE KIMCHEE!..................
True that. LOL
I like to brag that I'm mostly energy self-reliant. But I'm not getting much solar power today with my panels covered in snow. LOL Good thing we're not driving/charging the EV today or that'd be more power pulled from the grid. LOL
How much has you home charger added to your electric bill?............
The great thing about kimchee is you get to enjoy it twice!.............
But, but, but the Chevy ad says you ‘can’ wake up every morning to a full charge and drive up to your cabin at the lake.
So we charge all the cars up in 12 minutes and crash the grid, good plan.
Please check my math - you stated, “In August I drove 1,740 miles in 23.5 hours of driving and charging time.”
1740 MILES in 23.5 HOURS (1740/23.5) works out to an average of 74+ MPH. Not knowing how much charging time the 23.5 Hours represents, WHERE and HOW were you driving at speeds of close to 100 MPH for extended periods of time??
My guess is that this Korean Battery is still at TRL 3 or 4 at best. When it gets to TRL 7-9 then it may be something.
“...the faster a battery is recharged the more its life is degraded.”
That’s the big breakthrough announced here. This battery is claimed to have 82% of its original new capacity after 1,000 charge/discharge cycles. If you get an average of 300 miles on a charge, that’s 82% battery life left after 300,000 miles of driving.
Working hard to solve a manmade problem. That is the Left favorite pass time. Create a problem that has no reason to exist but does because of their faulty policies and then spend lots of money trying to solve said problem, spreading a little lucre around to their buddies in the process.
Thanks for nailing the troll.
Exactly 43 hours from when I left my family members' driveway until I reached mine. Minus 10 hours for hotel, and another half hour for doing work when I was ready to hit the road: 32.5 hours driving and charging time.
But again, that's only for optimum scenarios (plenty of fast chargers on that route, it was August and no lower EV range or charging speed from cold weather, and I'm old enough to need a pit stop every 2.5 hours for the restroom and walking around about 10 minutes). An EV wouldn't be good if I was younger and going 4 hours between breaks, or if I traveled a lot in cold weather or in areas with few charging options.
I’m guilty of “Fat Fingers” at times.
But seriously, I want to be able to drive 100+ mph on trips without a Po-Po rectal exam.
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